I. Introduction
Child Welfare Outcomes 2003: Annual Report to Congress (Report to Congress) is the sixth in a series of annual reports prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department). The Department is responsible for monitoring programs and services that address the needs of children and families who come into contact with public child welfare systems. The Children's Bureau, an agency within the Department's Administration for Children and Families, carries out these responsibilities and prepares the Reports to Congress.
The Reports to Congress are prepared in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act, as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. (Appendix A provides the specifications of section 479A.) As indicated in section 479A, the primary purpose of the reports is ". . . to assess the performance of States in operating child protection and child welfare programs . . ." To achieve this purpose, the Department consulted with State and local child welfare agency administrators, child advocacy organizations, child welfare researchers, and other experts in the child welfare field to identify outcomes and measures reflecting widely accepted performance objectives for child welfare practice. The Department established the following national outcomes based on information from this consultation process:
- Outcome 1—Reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect
- Outcome 2—Reduce the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care
- Outcome 3—Increase permanency for children in foster care
- Outcome 4—Reduce time in foster care to reunification without increasing re-entry
- Outcome 5—Reduce time in foster care to adoption
- Outcome 6—Increase placement stability
- Outcome 7—Reduce placements of young children in group homes or institutions
The Department developed 12 measures (presented in appendix B) to assess performance on these national outcomes. The Report to Congress provides information about each State's performance on each measure in a given year.1 To enhance interpretation of a State's performance on the measures, the Report to Congress includes the following context information for each State:
- The number and race/ethnicity of children (younger than age 18) in the State's population.
- The number and characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, and type of maltreatment) of child maltreatment victims (defined as children who are the subject of a substantiated or indicated maltreatment allegation).2
- The number and characteristics (age and race/ethnicity) of children in foster care at the start of the fiscal year and of children who entered and exited foster care during the fiscal year.3
- The median length of stay of children in foster care.
- The number and characteristics (age and race/ethnicity) of children "waiting for adoption".4
- The number and characteristics (age and race/ethnicity) of children for whom an adoption was finalized during the fiscal year.
Data on the number and race/ethnicity of children in the State population come from the U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey. The data for the outcome measures and context information come from the Department's Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). The specific NCANDS and AFCARS data elements used for the Report to Congress are provided in appendix C.
The Report to Congress and the Child and Family Services Review
The Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) is the Department's results-oriented, comprehensive monitoring system, implemented in fiscal year 2001. The CFSR was developed in response to a mandate in the Social Security Amendments of 1994 requiring the Department to promulgate regulations for reviews of State child and family services programs under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act.
Both the Report to Congress and the CFSR are designed to assess State performance with regard to child welfare practices and outcomes. However, they are separate activities within the Department and differ with regard to the performance assessment process. One key difference is that information about State performance in the Report to Congress comes only from NCANDS and AFCARS. In comparison, information about State performance in the CFSR comes from a range of information sources in addition to AFCARS and NCANDS. These additional sources include intensive case reviews, interviews and focus groups with stakeholders in each State, and State self-assessment reports. Consequently, the CFSR provides more comprehensive information about State performance than does the Report to Congress.
Despite their differences, the Report to Congress and the CFSR share the following goals: (1) to inform Congress, the Department, the States, and the public about State performance with regard to achieving desired outcomes for children who come into contact with public child welfare systems; and (2) to identify areas needing improvement so that targeted technical assistance can be provided to States. Appendix D provides a listing and description of the training and technical assistance resource centers established by the Department to provide this assistance.
To achieve these goals and connect the CFSR and the Report to Congress outcomes, the Department adopted six of the Report to Congress outcome measures for use in the CFSR and established national performance standards for these measures. These standards were used in the initial implementation of the CFSR as part of the Department's determination of a State's substantial conformity with specific CFSR outcomes. Additional information about the CFSR and the national standards established for the six outcome measures is provided in appendices E (CFSR information) and F (national standards information).
Organization of the Report to Congress
Child Welfare Outcomes 2003: Annual Report to Congress provides data for each State on each of the 12 outcome measures and context variables. The report also presents and discusses key findings regarding State performance on each of the outcomes and measures.5 The specific focus of each subsequent chapter is described below.
Chapter II: Achieving Safety-Related Outcomes. This chapter presents findings pertaining to (1) State performance on the national outcomes related to children's safety, and (2) the relationships between State performance on these outcomes and the number and characteristics of State child maltreatment victims.6
Chapter III: Achieving Permanency-Related Outcomes for Children in Foster Care. This chapter provides key findings regarding (1) State performance on the national outcomes related to achieving permanency for children, and (2) the relationships between State performance on these outcomes and the characteristics of State foster care populations.7
Chapter IV: Achieving Outcomes Related to Placement Stability and Appropriate Placements for Young Children in Foster Care. This chapter reports key findings pertaining to State performance in achieving placement stability for children in foster care and preventing the placement of young children in group homes or institutions. The chapter also reports findings regarding the relationships between State performance on these outcomes and the characteristics of State foster care populations.
Chapter V: State Performance on the Seven National Child Welfare Outcomes. This chapter provides an overall discussion of the findings and their implications for understanding State performance with regard to achieving the national outcomes.
Chapter VI: State Data Pages. This chapter presents the data pages for each State. The data pages also include: (1) any comments submitted by a State regarding its data8, and (2) a Federal Comment section providing a brief analysis of a State's performance. Data are presented for 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003.9
1 The Report to Congress references particular years without a designation of calendar year or fiscal year for ease of reading. Some of the data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System are based on calendar year data, while other data from that system reflect fiscal year data. All data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System are on a fiscal year basis. Back
2 Child Maltreatment 2003 provides the following definitions: (1) Substantiation refers to a type of investigation disposition that concludes that the allegation of maltreatment or risk of maltreatment was supported or founded by State law or State policy; (2) Indicated refers to an investigation disposition that concludes that maltreatment cannot be substantiated under State law or policy, but there was reason to suspect that the child may have been maltreated or was at risk of maltreatment. This is applicable only to States that distinguish between substantiated and indicated dispositions. Back
3 The term "foster care" as it is used in the Report to Congress refers to a variety of out-of-home placement settings, including foster family homes, group homes, shelters, residential treatment facilities, and similar placements for children who are in the State's placement and care responsibility for a period of 24 hours or more. Back
4 There is no Federal definition of children waiting to be adopted. For analytical purposes, the Department has defined children waiting to be adopted as children who have a goal of adoption and/or whose parental rights have been terminated. Children 16 years of age and older who have a goal of emancipation and whose parents have had their parental rights terminated are excluded from this population. State definitions of children waiting for adoption may differ from the Department's definition. Back
5 The term "State" in the Report to Congress includes Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as well as the 50 States. Consequently, up to 52 "States" may be included in the discussion of findings. Back
6 For purposes of the Report to Congress, a victim of child abuse or neglect is defined as a child for whom an allegation of abuse or neglect has been substantiated or indicated by an investigation or assessment. This definition is from Child Maltreatment 2003. Back
7 For purposes of the Report to Congress, a child is considered to be in foster care if the child is under the care and placement responsibility of the State or county child welfare agency for at least 24 hours. Back
8 Prior to publication of the Report to Congress, the Department disseminates each State's data pages to State child welfare agency administrators and data system managers. Based on this review, the State may resubmit data and/or provide formal comments to clarify various aspects of the data. These comments are included in the report with the State's data pages. Back
9 A decision was made to exclude 1999 data in this report because several States had substantive data quality issues in that year that were corrected in 2000. Back
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